Technological innovation also passes through lighting: in the era of ADAS and autonomous driving, headlamps become the cornerstone of Car-to-X interaction. Audi is one of the most advanced manufacturers in lighting technology
Manuele Cecconi
10th of July
The headlights are the “eyes” with which the car looks at the outside world, especially at night, when the dangers of the road and the unexpected can hide in the dark catching us unprepared. Innovation in the field of lighting therefore means first of all safety, but also much more, in a union in which function and design come together to meet the challenges of daily mobility. With the massive advent of Adas and autonomous driving, the optical groups will play an even more central role than in the past, thanks to a digitization that – at the moment – is configured as the culmination of an evolutionary process that has led Xenon to replace the lights. halogen, to then in turn be replaced by Led and Oled. All in less than three decades, thirty years in which Audi, a leading brand in this sector and always attentive to new trends in the automotive world, has never stopped experimenting. What about the near future? Tomorrow is made up of ever greater predictivity, interaction with the surrounding environment and Car-to-X, the connectivity that guarantees “dialogue” with other cars.
TOP-DOWN APPROACH
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In 2022, 90 years after the founding of the group (Auto Union) that gave birth to today’s Audi, the house of the Four Rings boasts nine different lighting systems: ranging from Led and full Led solutions to adaptive Matrix management. of the high beams, up to technical excellence such as the laser spot, the projection of danger warnings on the ground and the Oled rear lights. But the top-down approach adopted by the Ingolstadt brand guarantees not only the arrival on the market of almost “science fiction” technologies according to the standards of just a few years ago, but also their gradual implementation on the most accessible cars: the top models obviously lead the way, but the goal is always to extend the innovations as soon as possible to entry cars, up to entry levels.
FULL LED: FROM SUPERCARS TO SEGMENT C
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An example of this “democratization” strategy are the full LED headlamps, introduced by the Audi R8 supercar a few years ago and recently included in the standard equipment of some C-segment of the Four Rings. We are talking about Audi A3 Sportback and Q3, which in their respective S line edition and Business versions use full LED headlights as standard including low beams, high beams, daytime running lights, lights for driving on the highway, direction indicators, cornering lights and the all-weather lights. As for the rear light clusters, the full LED configuration integrates dynamic direction indicators, able to favor the perception, especially at night and at long distances, of the imminent change of direction.
THE LIGHT OF TOMORROW: FLEXIBLE OLEDS
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In the near future, Audi will significantly expand the functions delegated to the lighting systems, especially – as already mentioned above – in the direction of interaction with other road users and the exchange of Car-to-X information. The scenario is one in which lighting and design will be characterized by an increasingly symbiotic relationship, to the point that the car body will evolve into a communication tool with the outside world. In this regard, the German brand is developing the second generation of organic diodes: the “flexible” OLEDs, which can be bent according to different orientations, an evolution which, accompanied by the debut of three-dimensional light, will guarantee planners and designers great freedom of action. The “flexible” OLEDs can in fact be extended to the bodywork areas adjacent to the optical groups, guaranteeing large areas of dialogue with the outside capable of interacting with other road users, including cyclists and pedestrians.
THE URBANSPHERE CONCEPT
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The body of the car is thus itself transformed into a lighting-communication system, an evolution of which the Audi Urbansphere concept offers us a sort of anticipation. The German show car shows how the entire front surface can become an information tool, with the grille that evolves from a design element into a functional tool similar to the LED matrix surfaces at the rear. A further, futuristic technology introduced by Urbansphere is that of the Audi Eyes, highly customizable optical groups that adapt the illuminated surfaces according to use as daytime running lights or dynamic direction indicators, furthermore influencing the light signature according to the mood of the passengers. , detected by a series of sensors in the passenger compartment able to “read” the vital parameters, or the weather and traffic situation, so as to alert other road users. The projection light integrated in the spoiler, which projects the word “Quattro” in the upper area of the rear window, is also dedicated to sharing information with the outside world.
GROUND PROJECTION AND GAMIFICATION
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Moving the attention to the prototypes A6 e-tron and A6 Avant e-tron we also find the function of projection to the ground of the direction indicators. As we have seen on Urbansphere itself, the projection of symbols and “alarms” on the asphalt presents enormous margins for development, also thanks to 5G technology and the consequent possibility of the cars to “warn” each other of dangers or emergency situations, and artificial intelligence, which can take over driving to avoid obstacles. But the two A6 e-tron also offer an anticipation of the future “gamification” based on light, opening the door to a dimension in which lighting meets entertainment: when the car is parked in front of a wall, the LED headlamps Digital Matrix can generate cinema-quality animations, allowing passengers to use smartphones as joysticks and entertain themselves with a video game.
THE PRESENT: LED DIGITAL MATRIX AND CAR-TO-X
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The introduction of Matrix adaptive technology can be traced back to 2019, when the Led Digital Matrix projectors debuted on E-Tron and E-Tron Sportback and then also debuted on the renewed A8 flagship. The main element of DMD (Digital Micromirror Device) technology is a chip equipped with 1.3 million micro-mirrors, whose sides measure a few thousandths of a millimeter: thanks to the generation of an electrostatic field, each micro-mirror can change orientation up to 5,000 times per second, projecting the light beam in every direction. Here, for example, on the motorway, in heavy traffic conditions, the “lane light” and “orientation light” functions allow you to focus the driver’s attention and increase road safety: the lane light generates a luminous carpet that illuminates the driving lane by adapting to changes in the car’s trajectory, while the orientation light predictively shows the position of the vehicle inside the lane, favoring the maintenance of the center of the road. But Car-to-X is also being explored, taking advantage of data sharing and the projection of warnings and warnings regarding accidents or broken down cars in front of the car, the first applications of a technology that – it is easy to predict – will revolutionize the mobility of next years.
OLED, NEW POSSIBILITIES ON THE A8
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It was 2016 when on the TT RS, Audi’s compact sports coupe, the Oled lights made their debut, particularly efficient organic light emitting diodes capable of generating exceptionally wide and homogeneous lighting, with variable intensity. In 2020, Audi was also the first manufacturer in the world to extend this technology to a model of great evenings, the Q5, on which customers have the possibility to choose, during the vehicle configuration phase, between three different light motifs of the groups. rear optics. Still taking advantage of OLEDs, the 2023 model year of the A8 goes even further, becoming the first car of the brand to allow the rear light signature to be switched at any time, acting on-board via the Mmi system (there are three possible configurations, which become four for the S8). Laser Light In 2014, one year after introducing the Led Matrix on the A8 (now available across the entire range except the A1, with automatic high beam deactivation), Audi combines this technology with laser, using it for the first time on the R8 Lmx and on the R18 Tdi at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Today, after 8 years, it is available on a wide range of models, guaranteeing (R8, Q7, A7 Sportback, A5, RS6, RS7 supercar Audi R8 to the flagship Audi A8, from the full size SUV Audi Q7 to the coupé five-door Audi A7, E-Tron GT) guaranteeing a cone of light up to 600 meters long, a limit established by law for a potential that exceeds one kilometer.
July 10, 2022 (change July 10, 2022 | 08:46)
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